Evaluation of the reaction of the ESF to the economic and financial crisis

The purpose of this contract is to evaluate the reaction of ESF to the financial and economic crisis. With regard to this, the main objectives of the evaluation are to describe how the ESF has reacted to the crisis (Task 1), whether and under which circumstances it played a role in mitigating its effects (Task 2) and how it could eventually be made more apt to respond to needs of post-crisis recovery (Task 3). Additionally the evaluation should examine the extent to which governance issues including speed of reaction and adaptation played a major role when using the ESF to mitigate the crisis (Task 4). Finally, the evaluation should result in conclusions and recommendations which will be used as an input for the discussion on the ESF regulation post 2014 (Task 5).

Euréval fulfils the function of a geographic expert for FR with the following tasks:

1. Overview of the changes introduced at the level of France.

2. Inventory of changes on OP level (2008-2010).

3. Changes on Measure level (from a sample of OP, which will be defined after the inception phase) including illustrative case studies (if possible one per sample OP).

4. National labour market policy responses and the interpretation of role and rationale of ESF.